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<< Our Photo Pages >> Solnitsata - Ancient Village or Settlement in Bulgaria

Submitted by davidmorgan on Thursday, 24 January 2013  Page Views: 9437

Multi-periodSite Name: Solnitsata Alternative Name: Provadia-Solnitsata
Country: Bulgaria
NOTE: This site is 9.67 km away from the location you searched for.

Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Provadia
Latitude: 43.128414N  Longitude: 27.472514E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Solnitsata
Solnitsata submitted by Andy B : Two storey house in the settlement Site in Bulgaria (Vote or comment on this photo)
Archaeologists in Bulgaria say they have uncovered the oldest prehistoric town found to date in Europe. The walled fortified settlement, near the modern town of Provadia, is thought to have been an important centre for salt production.

Archaeologists believe that the town was home to some 350 people and dates back to between 4700 and 4200 BC. That is about 1,500 years before the start of ancient Greek civilisation.

Note: Finds of an iron bridle and wooden chest containing two different sets of gold items reveal ancient Balkan civilizations as archaeologists appeal for funding for the dig to continue
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"Solnitsata" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Archaeologists Uncover 7000-Year-Old Wall Near Provadia by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 28 January 2015
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During this year's excavation in Europe's oldest salt mines near Provadia, eastern Bulgaria, archaeologists discovered a wall from the fifth millennium B.C.E.

According to the head of the expedition, Vasil Nikolov, quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), the new discovery suggests that mining activities in the area were much more significant than previously thought.

“This was a fluke, as many archaeological discoveries are,” Nikolov told BNR. “We found this wall, which in some parts is more than a metre high, but the rest was destroyed by an earthquake. I cannot yet say how tall it really was, but in its base it is more than three metres thick. But there are other walls in the area, which are almost four metres high. Just imagine – this is from the middle of the fifth millennium B.C.E. and there were no fortresses in Europe back then.”

During this year's archaeological season in Provadia, were discovered 10 funerals in the necropolis.

Source: novinite.com
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Archaeological finds reveal ancient Balkan civilizations by davidmorgan on Friday, 18 January 2013
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Bulgarian archaeologists announced two major finds at the close of the 2012 excavation season, and hope to obtain state and other financial support to shed more light on the life and culture of the early Balkan civilisations.

Vasil Nikolov, former head of the country's National Archaeology Institute, unearthed Europe's oldest urban settlement near Provadia, 50 kilometres west of Varna on the Black Sea, which is dated between 4700 and 4200 BC.

The site is more than 100 metres in diameter, is encompassed by a 3-meter high stone wall and has two-story structures housing nearly 350 residents.

The settlement is one part of a much larger complex from the same period, which includes a salt production unit, a sanctuary and a necropolis.

"A thorough study of the site will take many years. ... There is work for at least seven generations of archaeologists at the site," Nikolov told SETimes.

Archeologists said they believe Provadia's ancient residents made a living by producing salt. They suspect production began in 5500 BC and by 4500 BC produced 5,000 kg annually.

The salt trade helped the ancients obtain raw materials, some of which were used to craft luxury goods like jewelry, and also gain enormous economic power, Nikolov added.

The Provadia finds may provide significant clues about the origin of the Varna Chalcolithic Necropolis riches, dating back to around 4300 BC.

The latest find -- a wooden chest containing two different sets of gold treasure, but from a much later period and left behind by the Getae, a Thracian tribe -- was unearthed at the largest mound on the site of the Sboryanovo Historical and Archaeological Reserve in northeastern Bulgaria.

Weighing more than 1.8kg, the treasure was from the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, buried as part of the funeral of a Getic ruler, archeologist Diana Gergova said.

"We found the chest in a vesicle at a depth of 8 metres ... Inside were two sets of gold objects. The first was a set of women's jewelry, including a unique tiara of a type never found before. There were also four spiral bracelets and a ring with an incredible haut-relief image of a lion," Gergova told SETimes.

The other set comprised an iron bridle and a number of gold items the bridle was decorated with, including horse harness decorations and buttons, as well as two large round pieces with the image of the goddess Athena and an exquisite forehead piece with a horse head.

Gergova and Nikolov are due to continue fieldwork at the two sites next summer, but excavations are dependent on funding.

The Bulgarian culture ministry told SETimes that it channelled 1.3 million euros in 2012 for archaeological excavation and conservation across Bulgaria and for the preservation of 10 historical sites.

Finance Minister Simeon Djankov promised last year to set aside more than 5 million euros for archaeology in the 2013 state budget.

Nikolov said although the budget was passed, he still does not know the amount the government will provide him.

"The minimum amount needed for the two-month excavation campaign stands at 61,000 euros," he told SETimes.

Given the volatility of government funding, archeologists said the excavations would not have been possible without private support.

"We would not be able to continue without private donations," Nikolov said.

http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2013/01/14/feature-03

Submitted by coldrum.
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First evidence for the earliest salt production in Europe by davidmorgan on Friday, 02 November 2012
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A paper by Bulgarian archaeologist, Vassil Nikolov, one of the excavators at Solnitsata:
http://naim.bg/contentFiles/Arh_2005_14_summary_11.pdf

And also "Salt, early complex society, urbanization: Provadia-Solnitsata (5500-4200 BC)": http://naim.bg/contentFiles/ARH_2012_1_res1.pdf
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Europe's oldest prehistoric town unearthed in Bulgaria by davidmorgan on Friday, 02 November 2012
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Submitted by Sunny100.

Archaeologists in Bulgaria say they have uncovered the oldest prehistoric town found to date in Europe.

The walled fortified settlement, near the modern town of Provadia, is thought to have been an important centre for salt production.
Its discovery in north-east Bulgaria may explain the huge gold hoard found nearby 40 years ago.

Archaeologists believe that the town was home to some 350 people and dates back to between 4700 and 4200 BC.
That is about 1,500 years before the start of ancient Greek civilisation.

The residents boiled water from a local spring and used it to create salt bricks, which were traded and used to preserve meat.

Salt was a hugely valuable commodity at the time, which experts say could help to explain the huge defensive stone walls which ringed the town.
'Extremely interesting'

Excavations at the site, beginning in 2005, have also uncovered the remains of two-storey houses, a series of pits used for rituals, as well as parts of a gate and bastion structures.
A small necropolis, or burial ground, was discovered at the site earlier this year and is still being studied by archaeologists.

"We are not talking about a town like the Greek city-states, ancient Rome or medieval settlements, but about what archaeologists agree constituted a town in the fifth millennium BC," Vasil Nikolov, a researcher with Bulgaria's National Institute of Archaeology, told the AFP news agency.

Archaeologist Krum Bachvarov from the institute said the latest find was "extremely interesting".

"The huge walls around the settlement, which were built very tall and with stone blocks... are also something unseen in excavations of prehistoric sites in south-east Europe so far," he told AFP.

Similar salt mines near Tuzla in Bosnia and Turda in Romania help prove the existence of a series of civilisations which also mined copper and gold in the Carpathian and Balkan mountains during the same period.

BBC Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe says this latest discovery almost certainly explains the treasure found exactly 40 years ago at a cemetery on the outskirts of Varna, 35km (21 miles) away, the oldest hoard of gold objects found anywhere in the world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20156681
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